I would describe this book as "juicy" (complimentary). Told through the perspective of a friend of the man, it tells a story of how he gets "canceled" by a performer in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I thought the extra layer of storytelling was brilliant, showing how a man's behavior impacts all the women around him. I truly thought this was an incredibly creative premise, and I would truly recommend this to anyone.

This is peak British humor: a journalist rips apart a play before having a passionate night with its lead actress. As anticipated, things go down hill FAST. The situation escalates to a shocking degree infusing the story with absurdism but also a decent amount of comedy. Wholly original and entertaining.

I was absolutely blown away by this stunning debut! I’ve recommended it to multiple people & then been distraught when I remember it won’t be out until the summer.

I was initially drawn in by the premise: a brutal (and very litbro coded) theater critic writes a one-star pan of a show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and then proceeds to have a one-night stand with the lead, setting off an unprecedented chain of events that irreparably impact everyone involved.

There is so much packed into this kaleidoscope of a novel. It’s a masterclass in perspective and a study of the biases we all carry with us. It raises so many interesting questions about the role of criticism in society and what we owe one another (as artists, friends, lovers and people).

I also really enjoyed the narrator, Sophie, and appreciated her perspective on grief, motherhood (and the grief of being a mother without a mother). I felt it helped deepen my understanding of her character and how she was processing the events of the festival.

This book will definitely make waves this summer & I can’t wait to follow its success. Many thanks to Doubleday for the early copy!!!

I found this book to be such a compelling and good read - the characters were just grey enough that I found myself rooting for them and then feeling bad that I was rooting for them, which I thought was a delightful takeaway from this book. As someone who used to be involved in the theater world in college, I really loved that this felt like a peek behind the curtain, and I can tell it was written by someone who was knowledgeable about the space.

I also really loved the social commentary of this book - about cancel culture and the way things can quickly spin out of control. The writing of the book kind of reminded me of Fleishman is in Trouble - I thought that the choice for the book to be told from an outsider's perspective was so clever and I enjoyed it so much, especially with her marital issues coming into frame as well.

A critic gives a one-woman show a one-star review, and then immediately sleeps with her without telling her this. She finds out and revamps her show to be a scathing takedown of him as a human - inviting anyone else treated badly by him to join the show. Soon, his career and reputation are looking as empty as the rest of his life. Meanwhile, our narrator is watching all of this unfold, while trying to sort out her own life: grief at her mother's death, feelings about motherhood and husband's affair, etc. In the end, maybe, the point is about confronting those who hurt us and being receptive to repair? Also, that criticism isn't as meaningful as creation, so maybe take a beat before you decide to shred someone else for lols.
I enjoyed this; it's a pretty quick read. The performative angst (of specific characters and also as a theme) is kind of tiring, but I suppose that's part of the point. In the end, I appreciate that most of us do some messing up, and as long as we try to muddle through to some kind of repair or understanding, it's not the end of the world.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

A well-written, insightful, and humorous story of a couple of reviewers (colleagues) attending the three weeks of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Alex — the handsome, 30 something son of a famous actress who can’t keep the girls away — gives a one woman show a seriously scathing one star review… and then sleeps with the actress before the review is printed. With some pretty intense malice, she turns around and makes his life a living hell with a me-too style assault that happens to catapult her show into something extraordinary and incredibly popular. Sharing the trip apartment, his colleague Sophie is the only one who is kind to him during his ordeal, but she has insecurities (so many) and troubles of her own.

I appreciated the fact that the book did not proceed in any obvious way. Instead, we’re given insight into the many different perspectives on who Alex really is (including his own), we get to peep into a panoply of lives that are (quite) different from our own (or at least mine), and (multiple!) people actually grow and learn from their experiences. I found it ultimately uplifting, though some of the raw honesty in the middle was a little off-putting and at times cringeworthy (oddly enough, it was Sophie whom I found cringeworthy, not Alex).

Worth a read (and probably less cringeworthy for the younger set).

A reviewer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival gives a woman's one woman show a one star review. Then he picks her up at a bar without revealing that he is a critic. Chaos ensues when she changes her show to rant against the critic. Fun, good sense of time and place. Loved the setting.

After Alex, a suave, playboy theatre critic, writes a scathing one-star review for a struggling actress’ one-woman show (and sleeps with her) he must reap the consequences. Namely, the actress, Hayley, rebranding her initially eco-friendly and tree-hugging show into a smear campaign of said critic. However, “Bring the House Down” by Charlotte Runcie, isn’t told from either of their perspectives, but from Sophie’s, another reviewer from Alex’s paper. She is a… semi-unbiased third party, watching everything unfold in the loft she shares with Alex during the colorful, chaotic, and buzzing Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

As a former theatre technician and occasional writer, there was a lot of relatability within this book. Few things compare to the throws of theatre drama. That, combined with the heavy discussion of cancel culture was an interesting mix. I feel like this book captured how intense of an echo-chamber not only theatre people can be but how I imagine Edinburgh Fringe being (thousands of artists trapped in one city for a few weeks? I always suspected it would be a tornado of drama).

For a book so heavily focused on the repercussions of cancel culture on both ends (those giving and those receiving) I felt there was little growth amongst the characters. They all spoke their truth in some capacity, but I didn’t see much learning or even developments of empathy from anyone, which I thought was what the entire book was working towards.

For a book that focuses heavily on the importance of star reviews, I’m worried I may fall into the middle-ground of the territory. It was a fun and entertaining read, especially if you need a quick-drama fix. However, the social commentary it was making fell a bit flat and was slightly redundant for me. I was also really excited as I kept hearing that this book has a similar energy to “Fleabag”. I really didn’t see the resemblance other than “Fleabag” initially premiering at Edinburgh Fringe. I was expecting more dry-wit and complex-characters due to that comparison. There was also a “will-they-won’t-they” dynamic that seemed forced, I almost feel the story would’ve been stronger and more interesting without it?

If you are a nosey person that secretly loves learning a bunch of tea and gossip about your coworkers, despite barely knowing them (but still being heavily invested). This is the book for you. It gives that energy through and through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a free e-ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review!

What could have been just a funny takedown of an entitled white male, becomes something more nuanced in Runcie’s book that features the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a backdrop.

Alex Lyons is a witty and withering critic for a London newspaper. After attending a one-woman show at the Fringe, he fires off a hurtful one-star review sure to please his readers hungry for his cruel takedowns. In addition to his writing skills, he’s also a womanizer and ends up bedding the recipient of his latest evisceration. Haley has been working for this moment: to perform her show and use the fringe as a launchpad for the rest of her career. Unfortunately the opening of her performance was lackluster, so she heads to a bar and meets a handsome stranger, who listens and says all the right things. The two head back to his place together, and it’s not until our narrator (Alex’s colleague), Sophie shows Haley the review, does she realize what’s transpired.

Unbowed, Haley revamps her show and Alex’s life, both personal and professional will never be the same.

I thought this book was terrific, while it reads quickly, there are moments of serious reckoning. Sophie has been cruising along writing tepid reviews, and struggling to find her way after having a baby with her partner. While Alex is a cad and his reviews are scathing, his diatribes on art are thought-provoking and make a case for the lack of critical thought regarding most of our media. Haley, too, is a complicated character. Alex’s hurtful review and loathsome behavior pushes her to stretch her boundaries and go beyond what she initially thought she was capable of.

I received an advance review copy of Bring the House Down from the publisher through NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley, and Doubleday publishing for this ARC.

I will be honest, this wasn’t my favorite kind of story. Lots of ire, lots of confrontation and I was uncomfortable by proxy. I didn’t much care for any of the characters, but the whole situation made me want to become a hermit.

Should a woman who decided to have a one-night stand with a man who knew that his soon to be published theater review would destroy her career, take her revenge public and destroy his life? This fast, witty but certainly thought-provoking book will have you thinking and rethinking every position you take. The narrator, a female colleague, is sharing a rental with the critic as things unfold. She also is going through a one-sided marital crisis. Her perspectives keep changing and at times you feel you are bouncing back and forth at a tennis match (in a good way).

The underlying events enable arguments for and against serious issues while not being preachy. The reader is able to draw their own conclusions regarding topics such as chauvinism, elitism, cruelty, narcissism, power including power of the written and spoken word and humanity. The book can be read as an interesting read or taken deeper as a commentary on today. Your choice. You will enjoy it whichever you choose.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for this advance read.

I enjoyed th​is story​!
It was an easy read and kept me interested to see what would happen.
​Even the naughty characters were likeable in their own way. (Alex)
​I will say that not a lot happened... it was short & sweet, which is why my review is too.

Bottom line... it was good and I would read another by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was an interesting story about what happens when a critic who loves giving terrible reviews (and is even more despicable for other reasons) finally gets his due when an artist decides to make her whole show about what he did to her.

There's a lot to unpack in this story about art, self-expression, payback, what's ok to criticize, family, trauma, and one's reputation. I felt that the story was both slow and the characters were all not-likable which made it hard to feel sorry for them and for what was happening to them. It created a distance between me and the story. It was still really interesting and a lot of food for thought.

with gratitude to netgalley and Doubleday for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

This was a unique and delightful book about what happens when a critic intersects his work life and his personal life. It takes a much deeper look then on relationships, misogyny, expectations between men and women in romantic encounters and communication. It dives info parent child relationships and how that effects both main characters in their relationships. I really enjoyed it and especially in the end the potential growth in the MMC.

Bring the House Down is a fast-paced and smart novel following a pair of theatre critics and Fringe performer as their lives implode over the 3+ weeks of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The story begins when Alex Lyons, a theater critic notorious for his one-star reviews, gives a terrible review to Hayley Sinclair's one-woman show shortly before sleeping with her. Once Hayley catches wind of the one-star review, she quickly flips the script on Lyons, creating a new (and incredibly popular) show blasting Lyons for his behavior.

This book not only gives the reader an intimate view into these characters lives as Sinclair's show grows in popularity, but it also offers a nuanced perspective on cancel culture, the pervasiveness of misogyny in the arts, the current state of the theatre and print industries, and the concept of nuance (or lack thereof) when it comes to the delicate nature of reviewing an artist's work. Runcie strikes the balance of giving readers and entertaining and binge-worthy story of conflict and cancellation, while still providing a layered and fresh perspective on the above topics. Each character was well fleshed-out and had their own clear perspectives, motivations, and back stories. There were times where I forgot that I was reading a fiction novel, and wasn't reading an obscenely long (but very entertaining) message from a friend debriefing her time at Edinburgh.

I would recommend this book to anyone who also loves reading a tailspin of a novel (Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, for example, comes to mind), or anyone who is similarly frustrated with the current state of misogyny the arts and wants a novel that explores how it informs the work we do.

This book really made me think about how I review books and authors and it was a little scary. It really made me think about the conflict between helping along an author or performer/ performance and giving a brutally fair assessment to help others decide if this work is for them. I think most non-professional reviewers tend to the positive side. I will say since I read this book I have become more mindful of my reviews.
But I did love this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the opportunity to read and give my own opinion.
What I loved :
The main characters - I really enjoyed getting to know Sophie and Alex. Their interaction felt fresh and interesting. Less sure about Hayley - at some point I got a little fed up with her vindictiveness.
The setting - The performing Arts Month is Edinburgh sounds so enticing.
The moral dilemmas presented by the book. We never really understand both sides of most stories and what life experiences shape an individual. This book will definitely stay with me because of this.
Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book a lot. So well-written, great plot twists, wonderful character development, The book kept my interest throughout. I enjoyed seeing the characters develop throughout the book as well. Got a great sense of Edinburgh during the Fringe Festival and the author did a great job with sensory descriptions. Highly recommend.

Charlotte Runcie provides the story of Alex Lyons, an overly confident ladies' man and theatre critic who gets the #metoo that he deserves. Lyons' downfall is narrated by his younger female colleague, Hayley, who is struggling with her own career and increasingly distant marriage. Lyons sleeps with a young performer whose earnest one-woman show on climate change he has already reviewed savagely for one star out of five. Humiliated, the actress changes her show into a personal and public catalog of Lyons' failing with women.

Runcie's story seems so detailed that the reader suspects it's drawn from real life. As a former performer and director, Runcie's world of cynical critics and overly melodramatic theatre people is all too believable. The author does a particularly good job of making each character believable and sympathetic, including Lyons, who seems hurt and a bit bewildered by all these women complaing about him ("It wasn't anything serious, and I was nice to them!"). A readable glimpse into the world of theatre, modern gender relations, and the perils of pride.

After writing a one-star review of a play, Alex sleeps with the play's main actress Hayley, who finds out who she went home with the morning after. This event spirals an uncovering of all of Alex's wrong-doings, in the form of Hayley's revamped show. Alex's coworker and fellow journalist, Sophie, gives us a front row seat to this unfortunate series of events, as well as her own personal relationship struggles. I was very excited to pick this one up, and it was such a pleasant surprise! Sophie is such a great narrator, and I truly felt like I understood each character, even though we only got one perspective. There were so many situations in this book that really made you think about how there are always "two sides to every story". I am a sucker for characters with unlikable qualities, and this book is full of them. I also enjoyed that we truly went deeper with each character, and their story did not stop at surface level. What a wonderful debut!

I will be recommending this book to anyone who wants a darkly comic beach read with a side of revenge. I'm not always a fan of the observer/narrator, but it totally works here.